Parasites, Worms, and the Human Body in Religion and Culture

Remember back when I used to talk about academic stuff?

Way back when the blog actually was Academic. Domestic. Awesome. not just domestically awesome? I'm having a hard time remembering that far back too.

I got a friendly reminder yesterday in the form of an email from my friend Jo. She had gotten her copy of a lovely little publication from Peter Lang entitled Parasites, Worms and the Human Body in Religion and Culture. 

Sounds fascinating, huh?

No seriously. That is the sort of thing that sounds fascinating to me. If we're ever in a bookstore and you can't figure out where I've run off to, look for books like this. Human parasites and diseases and people's ideas about parasites and diseases are really cool.

Which reminds me. I have a couple of books to add to my book club list (like New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers and Who Gave Pinta to the Santa Maria?  And a reading list page to add to my blog....

That's not the point of this post though. The point is that I can finally update a line in my CV (curriculum vitae, an overview of a person's experience and other qualifications very similar to a resume, but for academics. I think we just feel special because we call them something in Latin).

Did you catch the link there?

No?

I can update it because the chapter I originally co-authored for a conference held in 2009 is finally published. It's been listed as (in press) for years. It's really quite exciting. Or at least nice to have it seem finished up. 

In case you're curious, but not so curious you're willing to spend $77 on a book about parasites and worms in religion and culture, our chapter is about belief in Nagas, a sort of deity linked to water, and how those beliefs influence personal hygiene practices of believers. In short, people who believe in them are less likely to contaminate surface water with fecal matter and that should, at least theoretically, reduce transmission of several parasitic infections.

Super cool, huh?